UK Delays Permit Decision for CIP’s Offshore Wind Farm; Netherlands Launches New Tender; Greenpeace Warns It Could Sue Crown Estate
This week brought several big news from the offshore wind industry as the UK government extended the deadline on the final decision on CIP's Morecambe offshore wind farm, the Dutch government opened a new offshore wind tender, and Greenpeace warned the Crown Estate it would initiate legal action if the UK seabed manager continues "profiteering" from offshore wind leasing. Catch up with the news in our new recap 👇
The UK government has delayed a consent decision on the 480 MW Morecambe offshore wind farm, being developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
The statutory deadline for the decision on the Morecambe offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea was 23 October.
According to Labour Minister for Energy Consumers Martin McCluskey, speaking for Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, this has been moved to 19 December. The consent includes the construction and operation of an offshore generating station comprising up to 35 wind turbines.
“This is to allow time to request further information that was not available for consideration during the examination period and to give all interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on such information,” said McCluskey.
“Whilst it is not my preference to extend, I am clear that applications for consent for energy projects submitted under the Planning Act 2008 must meet the necessary standards.”
The Morecambe offshore wind farm was initially owned by Cobra Group and Flotation Energy. At the beginning of this year, CIP signed a transaction to take full ownership of the 480 MW project.
The tender for the 1 GW Nederwiek I-A offshore wind energy site, located in the North Sea, has been opened, with the winner expected to be announced in the spring of 2026.
The wind farm will be located approximately 95 kilometres off the coast of the northernmost tip of the province of North Holland, in the southern part of the Nederwiek offshore wind energy zone.
The project will be connected to TenneT’s Nederwiek 1 platform. This connection is part of the 2 GW standard, which the Netherlands will gradually roll out in the coming years. The export cables will run to Borselle, where the Dutch transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT will feed the generated power into the national energy system via the high-voltage grid.
The construction of the offshore wind farm is planned for 2030.
Greenpeace UK has said it plans to take legal action against the Crown Estate, accusing the public body of “monopoly profiteering” from the auctioning of seabed rights for offshore wind projects, a system Greenpeace claims is pushing up energy costs and slowing Britain’s transition to clean power.
The environmental group argues that the Crown Estate, which manages the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is exploiting its position by running competitive auctions that allow developers to bid unlimited sums for the rights to build offshore wind farms.
Greenpeace says that these uncapped “option fees” have generated record profits for the Crown Estate while inflating project costs and ultimately consumers’ energy bills.
The campaign group is calling for a review of the option fees that wind developers must pay, as well as the seabed auction process and procedures.
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